Popdigr uses a toaster oven occasionally. I hate the thing. Heats up the house more than using the real oven. And besides that, it's Black & Decker, and I don't wanna eat something cooked by a power tool.

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I thought I was the only person to cut a frozen pizza in half and cook/eat half a pizza.

Welcome to my club, Pam!

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, EPA, FBI, DEA, CDC, or FDIC. These statements are not intended to diagnose, cause, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you feel you have been harmed/offended by, or, disagree with any of the above statements or images, please feel free to fuck right off.

Highlights
•Many countries implement local-content schemes for public-sector purchases.
•The aim of these schemes is to support home employment especially in manufacturing.
•We use a detailed CGE model to analyse the U.S. scheme, Buy America(n).
•We find that Buy America(n) is an ineffective way of increasing manufacturing employment.
•Eliminating Buy America(n) would increase employment overall and in 50 out of 51 states.

Quote:

Abstract
Like many countries, the U.S. implements local content policies. Through these policies, the U.S. government attempts to stimulate employment, especially in the manufacturing sector, by favoring U.S. contractors for public sector projects (Buy American regulations) and by insisting that these contractors themselves favor domestic suppliers of inputs such as steel (Buy America regulations). We refer to these policies collectively as Buy America(n). Enforcement of the policies is via complex legalistic processes and often contractors to the U.S. government adopt a cautious approach by favoring U.S. suppliers even when this may not be strictly legally required. In these circumstances, it is not possible to provide a definitive model-based quantification of the effects of Buy America(n). Nevertheless, as demonstrated in this paper, a detailed CGE analysis can give valuable guidance concerning the efficacy of these policies. In an illustrative simulation we find that scrapping Buy-America(n) would reduce U.S. employment in manufacturing but boost employment in the rest of the economy with a net gain of about 300 thousand jobs. Even in the manufacturing sector, there would be many winning industries including those producing machinery and other high-tech products. Employment would increase in 50 out of 51 states and 430 out of 436 congressional districts.

One may think that pessimism is widespread today. Everyone, on all sides, is outraged at injustices and worried about the problems we face. But just beneath the surface, everyone, on all sides, shares an optimism that progress is not only possible but likely. Everyone believes that once problems are identified, they can be solved, and in time they will be.

This myth of inevitable progress is our modern faith, and like many faiths before it, it is a false faith generated by deep-seated human desires. Only the pessimist can see clearly the problems we face, and at the same time understand that progress is unlikely, and that our future, in many ways, is likely to be bleak. It’s worse than you think – and here’s how:

This research paper is behind an paywall but you can see the highlights and abstract.

There might be a full copy on Sci-Hub, if you don't mind a little moral ambiguity.

Quote:

Sci-Hub is a website with over 62 million academic papers and articles available for direct download.[2] It bypasses publisher paywalls by allowing access through educational institution proxies. Sci-Hub stores papers in its own repository, and additionally the papers downloaded by Sci-Hub are also stored in Library Genesis (LibGen).

Sci-Hub was founded by Kazakhstani graduate student Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011, as a reaction to the high cost of research papers behind paywalls, typically US$30 each when bought on a per-paper basis.

__________________******************There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there
it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your
expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever
gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Terry Bozzio

Very good imagery of the recent hurricane damage. NOAA flew over affected areas for Harvey and Irma and shares that imagery below. Much of it is better resolution than what you would see on Google Earth.

I was wondering about the Boy Scout facility and undeveloped island that I stayed at in the summer. Couldn't get information anywhere, but with this imagery I could see where a kayak stand/tower on the island got blown across a lagoon and into the mangroves, and a bunch of composting toilet structures also got shredded and thrown into the mangroves.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, EPA, FBI, DEA, CDC, or FDIC. These statements are not intended to diagnose, cause, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you feel you have been harmed/offended by, or, disagree with any of the above statements or images, please feel free to fuck right off.